


It's A Scene And We're Out Here In Plain Sight

by Golden_Ticket



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: A little bit of angst, F/M, Mostly Dialogue, One-Shot, Secret Relationship, but mostly feels, current events in consideration, domestic situations, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 07:28:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14039205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Ticket/pseuds/Golden_Ticket
Summary: “Where does this go? How far should we take it, huh? You don’t wanna be seen with me, you don’t wanna hold my hand off the ice, next thing you wanna do, what? See other people, get the internet talking? I don’t know, should we maybe really get married and have kids with other people just to stop the rumours?"Valid questions. Inspired by current developments.





	It's A Scene And We're Out Here In Plain Sight

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the happy group. Sorry I made them fight!
> 
> Story title from "I Know Places" by Taylor Swift.

For the longest time, Scott has always felt most like himself in the last minute or so of skating a program with Tessa. It’s then that he has left his inhibitions on the ice knowing that he can touch and look at her exactly the way he feels and it’s all safe on the performance. What hadn’t been safe had been doing media after the Gold in PyeungChang. That had been decidedly un-safe and he remembers walking out of the Burbank studio lot and getting into the car that would take them to their hotel promising Tessa that he would never ever _ever_ do that again. She had just smiled and rolled her eyes because she’d known as well as he had that he would do everything at all if she told him to but in that moment, he had really never reached that level of “done” before in his life. 

 

Now, looking back on it with a little distance he is a little more relaxed. Sure, most people hadn’t bought their shtick on Ellen at all but at least they had committed to the narrative and sold it as best as they could. Tessa had gone in expecting them to do a little better on the “getting people off their case” front but he wasn’t really surprised, partly because he, too, has eyes and intimate knowledge of the truth to boost (which apparently most people hadn’t needed to put two and two together). He had seen a couple of clips of the interview, even though he had tried to avoid it but even in those short glimpses he’d known that at least he, had got in fighting a losing battle. It makes no matter now, though. It’s been months and they haven’t done much press and had stayed off the grid together. This meant most of their one-on-one time was spent in hotel rooms and in private, away from prying eyes and he did not mind it much. This way he got Tessa unguarded, not looking over her shoulder all the time, got her relaxing into his embrace and peppering his neck and shoulders with kisses. If that was hiding, he could live with it.

 

What he can’t live with, he finds out a little later. One otherwise unremarkable Off-Day-Tuesday when the touring is almost done, they’re sitting in Tessa’s house in London, working side by side, her on some back and forth for a new clothing line project and him scheduling his first week of coaching at Gadbois. There’s the signature ping of Tessa’s emails, the one he tunes out as best as he can, and then after a while she says “Oh” and he turns his head to look at her on the couch. He has to twist his head awkwardly because he’s sat down on the floor to use her coffee table as a desk. He could obviously also have sat at the dining table to work but that would've been too far away from her.

 

“What is it?” He asks dutifully because she obviously wants to talk about it.

“Nothing,” she says. Or maybe does not want to talk about it, anyway?

He tilts his head at her and she holds his gaze for just a moment before-

“It’s a business request.” She says.

“Does it involve talking about lotion?” 

“No,” she says. “But you still won’t like it.”

He has the soundness of mind not to sigh and roll his eyes and instead just mimic at her to go on. He’s gotten so much better at that, she really doesn’t give him enough credit for it.

“It’s from Max,” she says and he raises his eyebrows because he doesn’t know a Max.

“From the Arkells?” She asks him, giving him a look that sort of manages to shame him for not socialising more outside of their friend group in general and not remembering people he was introduced to at length in particular all in a glance. Right, _that_ Max. He remembers now.

“So?” His tone is snappier than he’d like but he can’t help himself.

“So, he wants me to be in their new music video,” she says.

“You as in singular?” Scott puts his pen down because there is no way he’s getting to moving anybody’s lunches around _now_.

“Yes, _me_ is usually singular,” she reminds him and he would call her out on calling him out because with them singular has never really been singular but he let’s it go in favour of glaring at her.

“So, you’ll like..skate in it?” He asks.

“Not exactly,” she says.

“Tessa, I swear to God,” he breathes, all naked exasperation. Why is she being so cagey?

“He’s asking if I wanted to play his love interest,” she says and looks away from him at her laptop screen, a lot more concentrated than she would have to be. “Some scenes under some covers and then an outdoor-shoot, cutesy stuff, walking around hand in hand and…a kiss.”

 

Scott just stands up and walks out the room.

 

He doesn’t go far, not that he ever would, and he also knows it’s a little more dramatic than it would need to be but he is peeved and she follows him to her bedroom like he knew she would, so it is what it is.

 

“Scott,” she calls after him, joining him in that big master bedroom of hers that suddenly feels tiny. He’s standing with his back to her, fumbling with some of her necklaces on her dresser and refuses to look at her. She always breaks him when he looks at her.

“I knew you weren’t gonna like it,” she says and sounds thirteen.

“What was I supposed to do? Jump around?” He asks her ring collection, his jaw tight. “You wanna do it then?”

“I don’t know,” she says and he hates it that she means it. “Not if you’re not okay with it.” And that comes out piqued enough for him to snap his head up to her. 

 

 _Careful now_ , he thinks, feeling his temper rumble in the pit of his stomach like a cornered dog. 

“By all means, T, do whatever you like,” he says, because apparently, he’s an irredeemable asshole who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “careful”. 

Her reaction is instant and just as to be expected. She changes into her fighting stance, which for Tessa means shifting her weight to her right and crossing her arms tighter than should be physically possible.

“I knew you were gonna be like this about it, I just knew it,” she practically spews and he knows she _knew_ , no need to say it three thousand times. She always knows, that’s a given at this point in their life.

“Well, of course I don’t like the idea of you kissing some dude in his music video for all the world to see,” he says, louder than he should but she is so frustrating sometimes.

“Because of what it looks like!” She says and somehow that cuts deeper than anything else she could’ve said.

“Yes, because of what it looks like,” he half yells. “And you know very well that I had no problem spending the entire last year looking like your neglected buffet choices to everybody and their mothers but don’t you think this is taking it a little bit too far?”

“I’m just saying, it would maybe be good to diffuse the-,” she starts but he won’t let her finish that damn sentence.

“Diffuse what, Tessa? The fact that we love each other?” He doesn’t want to know what his face looks like, it’s enough to know how it feels, like it’s split in half and on fire. “Where does this go? How far should we take it, huh? You don’t wanna be seen with me, you don’t wanna hold my hand off the ice, next thing you wanna do, what? See other people, get the internet talking? I don’t know, should we maybe really get married and have kids with other people just to stop the rumours?”

“Scott,” she tries but he’s off. That tangent demands to be gone on.

 

“I’m not done!” He takes a step back because he would never take a step toward her when he’s like this but he also can’t reign himself in. This has been brewing below the surface too long to be held back now. “We’ve been doing this for a year. Where does it end? And for what? I’m tired of it. I’m tired of feeling like I’m doing something stupid or reckless every time I want to touch you in public, I’m tired of people looking at me like I’m a complete idiot who can’t get the message that you’re not into me, I’m tired of lying and I’m tired of having everybody lie for us. I’m tired. I’m just…so tired.”

With that, he deflates like an old balloon, all puffed out and wrinkled. He feels old. And he can’t bring himself to look at her, not after he’s raised his voice at her. He hates himself for that but he couldn’t help it. Now that it’s done he just feels hollow and still, even after all these years, scared that he finally managed to drive her away.

 

But instead of bolting, like she could and he wouldn’t even blame her, Tessa, wonderful Tessa, crosses the distance between them with assured steps and takes him in her arms, stroking his neck and hair and speaking low and urgently, close enough to feel her breath on his ear. 

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m so sorry.”

He sinks into her, like he’s conditioned to and he wants to sleep a million years.

“I’m sorry too,” he whispers. “And it’s fine if you wanna keep it secret. But please don’t make me watch you kiss another guy on tape? Like, if you can, please don’t make that tape in the first place.”

“Babe,” she says and brings her hands to the side of his face, leaning away to make him look at her while she presses her fingertips into his skin gently. “I won’t. I’m sorry. I didn’t…I didn’t know how much this bothers you or I didn’t _want_ to know. This…us, it’s so important to me, I know I get a little carried away.”

“I’m fine,” he says. He’s not fine.

“You’re not fine,” she says. “I just…it was so hard when they were hounding us, I don’t want to go back to that.”

“I know,” he says and looks at her eyes for the first time in a while. He can’t stand it too long. He’s in a very open state right now and if he’s not careful, he’ll say sappy things and start crying like a child.

“But maybe we’ve waited long enough,” she says and then he regrets that from this angle, he can only get her lips into focus. “Maybe it’s time to stop hiding.”

 

He wouldn’t dare hope. Everything she said is right, they had been hounded and it had been terrible and he had hated it with a passion. But then again…

“I mean it has been a long time now, hasn’t it?” She muses on and Scott thinks it smartest to just let her figure this out on her own. “And people don’t care too much any more. But we still get the questions anyway. Maybe we’ll just…rip the bandaid off and deal with it.”

He stays where he is and says nothing.

“Scott, what do you think?”

“I think I was never really fooling anyone anyway,” he mumbles and she chuckles. Ever so softly but it’s there.

“Neither was I,” she says and then it’s a full blown laugh she lets out and her forehead bangs up against his just a little. She brings her hands to sit on his chest and pushes out just enough to look at him again.

“At least we can say that we tried for a long time,” she shrugs and smiles and something in the way her eyes sparkle tells him that she doesn’t hate the prospect of not sneaking around anymore and hiding what is the most important thing in their life too much either. 

“So, want me to call Ellen?” He asks and she bursts. 

Once the fourth or fifth catch of laughter has passed through her, she grins at him. “I think I’ll just take this baby off the chain and post a picture of it where it belongs.”

 

Regrettably, she lets go of him with that but it’s okay since she needs her hands to fish for the long necklace she wears, always stuffed under clothes and high collars and produces the ring he had gotten her from its hiding place close to her heart. 

“Is it really time?” He grins and can’t help but touch her.

“Yeah, I think so,” she smiles. “This is going on my finger. And then it’s not coming off again.”

“Sounds good to me,” he tells her. 

 

But before she can take the chain off, he’s taking off her clothes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you've enjoyed this, comments are always welcome :)


End file.
